Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Irish civil rights under attack as police crack down on anti War demo

Joe Carolan | 14.10.2001 20:53

3 times in 2 weeks- Gardai violate civil rights in Dublin

Irish Civil rights at Anti War demo attacked
by Joe Carolan,


Civil rights in Dublin city have again come under
attack for the third time in two weeks, when the Irish
police force, the Gardai, drove paddy wagons into an
anti war march as it attempted to take to the streets.
The demonstration of about 300 people had just
finished a loud but peaceful protest at the U.S.
embassy, where they were addressed by John Gormley- TD
for the Green Party, Joe Higgins- TD for the Socialist
Party and Kieran Allen, editor of Socialist Worker,
amongst others.

Speakers condemned the bombing of Kharom in
Afghanistan where over 200 villagers have died from
Allied attacks. Speakers from the campaign to end
sanctions in Iraq told of the 6000 children that die
each month because the US and UK forbid medical
supplies to get through. A speaker from Residents
against Racism condemned the racist nature of the war,
and argued for solidarity with Ireland's Muslim
community in the face of racist attacks on the streets
and arson threats to Dublin's mosques. The use of
police baton charges on peaceful anti-privatisation
protestors the Wednesday before at the Burlington
hotel was also condemned, with Kieran Allen from
Socialist Worker making the point that Western
governments were using the events of September 11 to
curtail our civil rights and liberties. He warned
that Bush, Blair and indeed the Irish government were
trying to criminalise protest, and brand those opposed
to war, privatisation or globalisation "terrorists".

Because of the support and participation of Tony
Blair's government in the attacks and bombings,
protestors applauded the suggestion to take the
demonstration up to the British embassy, which was a
ten minute walk away. People began assembling on the
road, and banners were taken out. Suddenly, a line of
Gardai formed in front of us, and told people to get
off the road. Kieran, through the microphone,
reminded them that we had the constitutional right to
assembly, portest and to march to the British embassy.
He was then physically set upon by two gardai.

Nearby paddy wagons drove dangerously into the crowd,
and the front of the demonstration was rushed by Garda
reinforcements. Kieran was flung into the paddy
wagon,
as the crowd roared "peaceful protest!" and "shame!".
Anonther protestor, Donal, was reminding people that
we had the legal right to march and protest on the
streets of Ireland, when he was pulled and choked by
another three Gardai. He was visibly physically
manhandled in front of the demonstration, as hundreds
of people shouted "Garda brutality- no way! Our
civil rights are here to stay!". I saw a woman being
physically choked by Gardai, as they attempted to
fling more people into the van. The paddy wagon drove
off, again dangerously through the crowd around it, to
nearby Donnybrook Garda station.

People voted with their feet and walked through police
lines and around the remaining paddy wagons. As the
Dublin police helicopter hovered overhead, and police
reinforcements flanked us, we marched on the British
embassy as was our democratic right. Our deep disgust
at Tony Blair's hypocrisy and participation in
terrorist bombing of Afghan civilians echoed
throughoout the affluent, leafy suburbs. Passing cars
honked their support as hundreds of voices insisted
"Afghanistan needs...Food not Bombs!"

But many were now concerned of the attack by the
police, and a lecturer from Maynooth University
reminded the police how baton charges on Civil rights
protestors in Derry on the 5th of October 1968,
sparked a mass movement that nearly toppled the
corrupt Northern Irish state. He argued we were now
witnessing the same attacks on our rights on the
streets of Dublin. In an impressive display of
solidarity, most of the 300 protestors outside the
British embassy then marched on Donnybrook police
station, and with arms linked and in lines of four,
again asserted our rights to march on the streets of
Dublin. By this stage, the Irish media had arrived in
force, and the police notibly retreated.

The march arrived at Donnybrook strong, loud and
confident. A mass picket was placed on the police
station, which drew the attention of hundreds of
passerbys, including the dozen or so mustachioed
members of Ireland's secret political police, the
Special Branch. After about an hour of assertive
chants in defence of civil rights and the right to
protest, Kieran and Donal were released charged with
offences under Section 6 of the Public Order Act. As
people jubilantly cheered, both insisted that they
would continue to build the anti capitalist and anti
war movement, and that a key test of our civil rights
in Dublin would be the rally against the war at the
Dail this Tuesday at 6.30pm. The anti war movement in
Dublin is mobilising for a massive turn out, to show
our Government that US bombers are not welcome on
Irish soil, and that the majority of Irish people
rejected government attempts to further involve us in
military alliances with the resounding No vote to the
Nice treaty. We will also be standing up for our
civil rights against a police force that is
increasingly being seen as short tempered, heavy
handed and contemptuous to the constitutional rights
of Irish citizens to protest.

ALL OUT AGAINST THE WAR
6.30 pm
Rally at Dail Eireann, Kildare Street, Dublin
THis Tuesday 16th October

FOR OTHER REPORTS FROM IRELAND FOLLOW THESE LINKS

Dublin Anti-War Protests 2 Arrests
 http://uk.indymedia.org:8081/front.php3?article_id=13909&group=webcast
------------------------------------
More Dublin Anti-WAR Protest Pics
 http://uk.indymedia.org:8081/front.php3?article_id=13910&group=webcast
-------------------------------------------
Dublin Anti-War Demo 2 arrested Video
 http://uk.indymedia.org:8081/front.php3?article_id=14043&group=webcast
-------------------------------------
CALL FOR ANTI WAR MOVEMENT IN BELFAST
 http://www.uk.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=13395&group=webcast

Joe Carolan

Comments

Display the following 11 comments

  1. dollar bill y'all — ona deathlist
  2. Empower! — Zz
  3. No Blood for Oil — Black Gold
  4. 10 Reasons To STOP The Bombin — IrishIndymedia
  5. Bush-Laden picture Lies and Speculation — Creative Anarchy Ireland
  6. The SpiteGirls - Picture — Creative Anarchy Ireland
  7. Eye for an Eye leaves the whole world Blind — Irishmediahead
  8. Photos of Protest — mal
  9. SPITEGIRLS RE-POSTING FUNNYS — Creative Anarchy Ireland
  10. where were you? — tenspot
  11. attacked by whom? — tenspot tommy
Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech